FNPF’s habitat restoration projects in Kalimantan are currently in:
- Tanjung Puting National Park (TPNP), the largest national park in SE Asia
- Lamandau Reserve.
TANJUNG PUTING NATIONAL PARK
Our reforestation sites iN Tanjung Puting National Park are at Pesalat and Beguruh. Our aggro-forestry demonstration site is at Jerumbun, just outside the national park.
Click here to read more about Tanjung Puting National Park
Pesalat reforestation site
Pesalat is our longest running site in Borneo. Pesalat is about 45 minutes by boat upriver from Tanjung Harapan (also known as Sekonyer village) and about 15 minutes down river from Pondok Tanggui. There are Orangutan rehabilitation centres at Tanjung Harapan and Pondok Tanggui.
Prior to the national park being extended in 1984, Pesalat was an area of traditional slash and burn farming, so when we started our project it was severely degraded … completely cleared of trees and overrun by imperata grass. Despite being surrounded by secondary forest, natural forest regeneration cannot occur because of the imperata grass, an aggressive weed that overpowers any tree seedlings and prevents them form growing. The area is mostly flat and includes both peat swamp and dry land.
Since 2000 years we have focused on reforesting the dry areas, which were once dominated by Iron Wood trees. We have planted on over 50 Hectares (HA), initially planting 400 saplings per HA, and then planting additional saplings almost every day to increase the density and diversity of the trees, and to replace any dead saplings with new.
In addition to the reforestation work, our team also maintains the park infrastructure on behalf of the park management. The site includes a conservation education centre and the camping ground in Tanjung Putting National Park for visitors.
Our day-to-day work at Pesalat includes the following:
- Post-planting monitoring and maintenance. For 3 years after planting we protect the young saplings by cutting back the weed grass that grows so aggressively in areas where native forest has been cleared. After 3 years of post-planting maintenance and care, the saplings are strong and large enough to grow independently and without risk from being suffocated by the weed grass. Plus in this process we are able to monitor the progress of each sapling. The survival rate is currently about 73%. When we discover a dead sapling, we replace it with a new sapling.
- Patrolling for fire prevention. Risk from fire is severe. Farmers on lands bordering the national park (and also those illegally farming within TPNP) that use slash and burn methods are the primary cause of fires spreading into the park. So monitoring and preventing the spread of fires is a constant task. Our good relationship with the community means that they assist us, both in terms of monitoring and helping to extinguish fires and/or preventing them from spreading.
- Seed and seedling collection. Whilst patrolling the adjoining forest areas, our staff constantly collects seeds and seedlings to take back to our nursery, or to the village cooperative nursery.
- Planting seeds and seedlings in the nursery. Collected seeds are planted in seed pads in our nursery to produce seedlings. And these seedlings and those collected from the forest are planted in the nursery to grow saplings for planting. Currently we are focusing particularly (but not exclusively) on producing more Iron Wood saplings because this region used to have a lot of Iron Wood trees.
- Plant at least 5 saplings per day in the reforestation site. This is to increase the density and diversity on the planting site.
- Giving information to any visitors who visit this area. In this way, we hope to educate visitors on the challenges and goals of the conservation project.
Beguruh reforestation site
The Beguruh site is a mixture of dry land and wetland peat swamp. Our dry land reforestation site is about 1 hour walk from the Tanjung Harapan orangutan rehabilitation and release post, and our wetland reforestation site an additional 30 minutes. As with Pesalat, the area is severely degraded of trees, with natural tree regeneration restricted by the imperata weed on the dry areas and by blade grass and ferns in the wetland peat swamps.
We have worked here for the last since 2006 and by 2010 we had planted and maintain 50,000 saplings on 125 HA of dry land (400 per HA). Our survival rate after 3 years is over 70%, and our staff continuously replace dead saplings with new. Plus our staff plant additional trees on almost a daily basis to increase the density and diversity of the trees.
In 2009 we started planting on a 40 HA site of severely degraded wetlands. We have no guidance on how to reforest the wetlands because it has never been done before in TPNP. Over the previous 5 years we carried out numerous wetland planting experiments to gain experience and develop a planting method for this large wetland project.
Reforesting a wetland peat swamp present very different challenges to the dry land.
- Access to the planting site is extremely difficult because it is swamp for most of the year.
- We can only plant in the dry season when the area is accessible. During the wet season the area is covered in swamp water.
- The saplings that we plant must establish themselves and grow tall enough during the dry season to survive when the swamp water returns in the wet season.
- Most of the wetland is covered by ferns and “blade grass”, which makes natural regeneration almost impossible, and means that we must continuously cut back and clear the weeds from suffocating the planted saplings. The “blade grass” is extremely sharp and cuts the feet and legs of the staff, making work in the area very difficult. Plus it will suffocate the saplings unless we repeatedly cut it back. Just like in Pesalat, we monitor and maintain the saplings for 3 years after planting, after which we expect the trees to be large and strong enough to grow independently. All saplings that die are replaced with new saplings.
- Fires are a major threat and more dangerous than in the dry areas, because of the underlying peat. Once peat ignites, it can continue burn for months (or even years) and will only be put out if there are extended periods of heavy rain.
Fires are a also major threat and more dangerous than in the dry areas, because of the underlying peat. Once peat ignites, it can continue burn for months (or even years) and will only be put out if there are extended periods of heavy rain.
